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April /May 2020 £2.50

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1 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 Contents… House Groups House Groups 2 Welcome 3 ith the beginning of Bible Verses for Reflection 3 W Lent the 2019/2020 From the 4 Minster House Group series From / Pause for Thought 5 came to an end. As previously some seventy people had

The Man from Galilee 6/7 gathered in groups of between Leaves of Southwell Dementi, Mental ten and five, fortnightly between September and the beginning of Advent, and Health & Learning Disabilities Outreach again a few times between Christmas and Shrove Tuesday. In response to requests for bible study the suggested theme was material from the Bible Project 7 Society’s Word lyfe stream. This focuses on three areas – being immersed in Meet Jonny Allsopp 8 the word of God, sharing faith and getting to know Jesus better. Over five Southwell Music Festival Launch 8 sessions the material suggested how scripture might offer ways of being immersed in the Christian message, of reflecting upon Jesus as saviour, of On the Road to Emmaus 9 sensing the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, of feeling how Christ’s Holocaust Memorial Day Event 10 followers are called to live distinctly different lives and how we might explore ways in which a post-Christian world might engage with the great story of National Holocaust Centre & Museum 11 Christ. New of Sherwood appointed 11 Son of Man / Some GreenTips 12 The material is quite structured and groups had differing experiences of it, but as ever the House Groups supported fellowship and learning together.

New Dean for Climate Justice 13 Covid-19 is going to curtail gatherings for some time and we will have to take Foxes in Ashford 13 advice about when it might be safe to resume them. All that can be offered at Forgotten Fasts - forgotten Ways 14 present is thanks for the friendships they have supported and hope that these will continue to offer support through present difficult times. God’s great Reflections on Contemporary Church Life 15 message to humanity is that all can be redeemed and restored to its intended Education News 16 design. This is the message embodied in Jesus himself, rooted in the word of Inequalities of Health and Wealth 17 God, and ultimately expressed through the lives of those who follow Christ. It is a living tale of grace spoken in and through word and action. Books of Hours - Medieval Bestsellers 18 The Leaves of Southwell Conference Ecumenical Lent House Groups were arranged and got under way. They were to follow one of the York Courses; Superstar. The group I was involved with A Portuguese perspective 19 managed two meetings before we felt obliged to follow public health advice An update from the Lay Chair of and meet no more. A great shame. We were just beginning to get to know one Newark & Southwell Deanery Synod 20 another and learn from our differences. Let’s pray that by this time next year it will all be over and some sort of normality will have been resumed. Did you know... ? 21 Building progress 21 Hugh MIddleton Contacts 22/23 News & Views from Sacrista Prebend 24 Just to be clear 24 Subscription

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2 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 Welcome to the April/May edition of Southwell Leaves

Our minds are dominated at present by the Covid-19 coronavirus and the ramifications of a worldwide pandemic. The Minster and its people are not immune to the anxiety and changes of plan which every institution is facing. The situation is unprecedented (an over-used word!) in recent history, and its closest parallel is the 1918/19 outbreak of Spanish flu. At the time of writing, the over-70s and those with existing health problems are barred from leaving their homes ot avoid getting ill. Those on low wages and in the gig economy will be worst-hit, and food banks will be needed more than ever.

Readers will know that all public church services have been cancelled, and we face a very unusual Holy Week and Easter this year. All the Minster’s core activities have been affected, and we have no ‘What’s On’ pages in this edition of Southwell Leaves. Daily prayer, which is one of the core functions of a cathedral, will continue but behind closed doors. As we go to press, the arrangement is that each day the clergy will pray Morning Prayer at 8.15am and Evening Prayer at 4.30pm. If we are online, we can download the Church of Daily Prayer smart- phone app, or find it at home on our computer, Kindle or iPad; ew can join in at the same time, commending the world and the Church into God’s care. Churches, including the Minster, are looking at ways of live- streaming services. The Family Communion on Mothering Sunday, led by the clergy and choir musicians, was broadcast on Youtube by a link on the Minster’s website; some future services will be found there too. Also members of the two prayer groups are keeping in touch with each other, and will pray in their own homes. The Minster will be open for private prayer daily from 9.15am till 4.30pm, so people can come in on their own, to pray or light candles.

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York wrote an open letter on March 17, pointing out that church services are only part of what churchesdo. ‘It has always been the historic vocation of the to be the church for everyone… This is a defining moment for the Church of England. Are we truly a church for all, or just the church for ourselves?

We urge you, sisters and brothers, to become a different sort of church Bible Verses for Reflection in these coming months: hopeful and rooted in the offering ofprayer and praise and overflowing in service to the world.’ Dean Nicola writes about this in ‘From the Dean’.

In Southwell, the Town Council, Churches Together and the Lions have got together to find ways of giving practical help for the isolated. eTh crisis is engendering a great sense of community. Cards like this (right) have been circulated in the town. urely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; Our articles give a picture of the pre- and post-Covid-19 concerns of the S Church, with reports on the Holocaust Memorial, the National Holocaust yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and Centre, and the appointment of Dean Hosam Naoum – well known to us afflicted. in Southwell – as coadjutor Bishop of . An article discusses But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our ethical issues surrounding health and wealth. There are reports on iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, meetings about worship and the house groups. The connection between and by his bruises we are healed. our carved leaves and caring for the vulnerable environment and Isaiah 53: 4-5 vulnerable people living in it is outlined in two articles. After he said this, Jesus showed them his hands and his side. Holy Week and Easter could pass us by. Tom Hislop has written about Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to the road to Emmaus, one of the Easter stories, as well as an article them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I about medieval Books of Hours which helped people of an earlier send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said generation to celebrate the Church’s seasons. Articles about Easter in to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.' the Orthodox tradition and about a play that dramatizes Jesus’ trial John 20: 20-22 before Pilate focus our minds on this special season. Our front cover reminds us that spring has arrived anyway. Ironically, Covid-19 has Suggestion for Reflective Reading, based on the ancient tradition resulted in less travel and therefore cleaner air; also snowdrops, of Sacred Reading ('Lectio Divina') primroses and daffodils have been particularly good this year. Read the verses slowly, perhaps more than once. Christianity is a faith rooted in hope; the Minster and daffodils illustrate If any word or phrase strikes you in particular, stay with it, that hope. repeating it quietly to yourself. Reflect about what God might be saying to you through this. Vincent Ashwin Move into quietness, resting in God's loving presence.

3 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 From the Dean

s I write, the news is dominated entirely by the rising Postscript as at The Feast of A emergency around the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic with Annunciation its escalating impact on the health and economies of every prior to going to press: country in the world. By the time you read this, we are predicted I wrote this article some 12 days to be in a more serious position with up to 80% of the population ago to meet the then deadline. affected by this new and threatening virus. Travel, business, retail, How much has happened! education, large gatherings (maybe including church services) Suspension of the Peace and have all been derailed in a matter of days. The term ‘self-isolation’ chalice at the Eucharist seems a is in our everyday vocabulary and in the Minster, we have made naïve response when we see how fast the world has moved – to contingency plans if members of staff or volunteers are either suspension of public worship on 17 March to closure of all places unwell or away from work caring for family members. We are of worship on 23 March. Today one third of the world’s adhering to national guidance around offering the peace and population is in ‘lockdown’. The first simplified and recorded suspending the sharing of the communion cup and reviewing the Sung Eucharist with, three lay clerks, two clergy and one organist situation with visitors and other events daily. was broadcast on Mothering Sunday via the website. This won’t be permissible again for the foreseeable future. The word The backdrop of Lent to these global events seems fitting. We ‘unprecedented’ is already a cliché but that is what it is. We are have been plunged into a bewildering experience, facing the adjusting rapidly to the world of online video meetings (much reality that we are not as strong or self-sufficient as we once shorter than the real thing!), WhatsApp, and social media to help thought. Plans must change, priorities shift, and we must resist us stay connected – but it is truly isolating for those without spiralling into fear and self-preservation but return again to the access to it. life and love of God. I live in the house first built by William Mompesson, who before coming to Southwell was of the We’ve been saying glibly for years. ‘The church is not the building village of Eyam. By all accounts he was a somewhat but the people of God’ and now we have to live that profound - complex character. Perhaps we would diagnose him with post gospel truth. The risen Jesus gathered his disciples in order to traumatic stress syndrome these days for he surely witnessed send them out to share his love and hope in a hurting and fearful immense human suffering as the plaque hit his small community. world. Our sharing will be from our homes for the time being but Mompesson is famed for averting the spread of this terrible that does not stop us from being outward focused and part of a - disease by the ‘self isolation’ of a whole village in 1666. Perhaps great movement of prayer, healing and renewal. the tranquillity of was the healing balm he Dean needed to recover spiritually and emotionally in his final years.

This is a time for us to be acutely aware and attuned to those most vulnerable in our community, the elderly, those who live alone, neighbours and those without family support nearby. We will ensure that our pastoral care network is alert to need. Even a daily phone call can be a lifeline. Mother Julian of Norwich lived through the terrifying times of the Black Death in the fourteenth century. She experienced a different kind of self-isolation, one which was self-imposed as part of her vocation to simplicity, seclusion and prayer. In her beautiful writings of her visions in Revelations of Divine Love she says, ‘The Lord showed me a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, on the palm of my hand, round like a ball. I looked at it thoughtfully and wondered ‘What is this?’. And the answer came, ‘It is all that is made’. I marvelled that it continued to exist and did not suddenly disintegrate; it was so small. And again, my mind supplied the answer. It exists both now and forever because God loves it.’ In short everything owes its existence to the love of God. In this little thing I saw three truths. The first is that God made it, the second is that God loves it and the third is that God sustains it.’

These are unprecedented times of uncertainty. Like Julian, we can hold fast to the truth that we are made by God, loved by God and sustained by God. This is Easter faith by which we and others flourish. God’s life and love in Jesus breaks through. At a time of suffering: Stations of the Cross now in the bare of Southwell ‘Alleluia. Christ is risen, He is risen indeed’. Minster

4 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 Canon Precentor Richard

As I write this, our nation and our world is in the grip of what will no to the 9.30/11.15 pattern doubt become known as the Coronavirus Crisis. Over the past few (including choir holidays, days, restrictions on almost every part of our civic and social life as well as ‘special’ have become stricter and stricter, so that one ‘new normality’ must Sundays). A consistent quickly be jettisoned in favour of yet another, before we have even pattern of worship is begun to assimilate the last change. This includes, of course, normally seen as Christian worship. As I write today, even private offering of worship important for by clergy in churches is no longer permitted. All of this brings home congregational growth – to me in a new way just how critically important our worshipping something of which we need to be mindful. life as a Christian community is, and how much it matters. the need to free up a certain amount of clergy time and It now seems a very long time since Shrove Tuesday, whenmany of resource for a possible new, alternative service on Sunday us gathered in Trebeck Hall for a second conversation about the evenings – perhaps on a monthly basis. future of the Minster’s Sunday worship, following an initial Even more than at the November meeting, I was quite humbled by discussion at the special Forum in November. In preparation for the the sheer graciousness of the discussion. There were significant meeting, I had written an article for Southwell Leaves in which I had questions raised – including ones about the reduction inour Prayer sketched out a proposed new service pattern, and a brief ationaler Book offering, and about the inevitable reduction in the breadth of for suggesting it. It may be worth stating these again. our worship in moving to a single mid-morning Eucharist. One What was proposed (initially on a year’s trial basis) was: specific matter which it may be worth addressing brieflyhere 7.30: The Litany (BCP; Advent and Lent only) concerns the proposed Morning Prayer service, which is envisaged 8.00 Holy Communion (BCP) as a simple 20-minute office for the clergy and those who wish to 9.00 Morning Prayer (Common Worship; weekly except on join them (similar to the service that currently takes place at 7.30 those Sundays when there will be Mattins later in the on Sundays) rather than a (numerically) major part of our Sunday morning) programme. 10.00 Cathedral Eucharist (Common Worship; choral; We concluded by emphasising that the decision as to whether to including Junior Church) embark on this year’s experiment was Chapter’s, and that Chapter’s 11.30 Sung Mattins (BCP; one Sunday per month – which views would duly be sought. Sunday still to be decided, but the same Sunday each - month so far as possible) Covid 19 then intervened, and it quickly became clear that any trial 3.30 Evensong (BCP) of the new pattern would need to wait. We have now pencilled in a September start – always subject, of course, to Chapter’s approval. And the reasons were as follows: By the time September arrives, we hope that some semblance of normality will have returned. But we will have been changed by the the need to promote consistent excellence in worship. This Coronavirus Crisis. I pray that we will return, in due course, with a is something that is difficult when one of our sung Eucharist heightened sense of the preciousness of the privilege of services (the 9.30 service, which usually has the highest worshipping God in his house; and that we will continue to work attendance) most often does not have a choir. A single together to shape our worship for his glory – and always with a view Cathedral Eucharist gives us the opportunity to be at our to enabling others to share more easily in the great treasures with best every Sunday morning. which we have been entrusted. the need to establish a regular, robust pattern. This is Richard Frith impossible at the moment given the number of exceptions

or the last few years there has this treasure in earthen vessels, to F been a Thought for the Week Pause for Thought show that the transcendent power in the Minster's Pew News, usually belongs to God and not to us,' (2 taken from books in Sacrista Prebend Corinthians 4:7). library. Esther de Waal, 'Living with Contradictions', Fount 1989, Here are two quotes from 2016. pp. 125-6. The resurrection The paradox of vulnerability After Jesus' crucifixion, something happened, not The promise of the kingdom is not that we shall escape only to cause the Church to recover and survive, the hard things but that we shall be given grace to face but also to cause the astonishing assurance that the death of them, to enter into them, and to come through them. The Jesus was good news. Something happened. The apostles said promise is that we need not fear. The cross is failure at its that Jesus had made himself known to them as alive: they saw, starkest. Christ hangs there with a couple of other failures on heard and received the impact of his person upon them, as he either side. To all human appearances this is the final failure. gave them not comforting illusions but challenges to new actions Death on a cross - for Greeks and Romans the lowest, the most and understandings. Either the apostles were deluded in this, so despicable form of execution. ...Yet vulnerability and failure are that their subsequent life and behaviour were rooted in delusion, precisely the materials with which God can work. St Paul is or else it was true that Jesus had risen. constantly aware of his own weakness and poverty: 'But we have Michael Ramsey, 'Canterbury Pilgrim', SPCK, 1974, p. 31.

5 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 The Man from Galilee

On Thursday 30th January 2020 seventy-seven clergy and senior Leaning. Fred, together with the late Canon Andrew Woodsford, lay delegates of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem met in the was a strong supporter of the Episcopal Church in the Holy Land Chapel of the Theodor Schneller School in Amman, Jordan, and and had led several educational visits and pilgrimages. Angela elected the Very Reverend Dr. Hosam Elias Naoum, Dean of St. invited Hosam to dinner and it was at this meal that he produced a George’s Cathedral, Jerusalem, as small photograph of his fiancée, Rafa, whom he Coadjutor Bishop, to serve alongside the subsequently married. Right Revd Suheil Salman Dawani, As a result of the Second Intifada relations Archbishop of Jerusalem until his between Hosam, members of the Minster retirement in 2021. Subject to Congregation and Dean David were confined to ratification by the Central Synod of the telephone calls and e-mails. During this time Province of Jerusalem and the Middle Hosam became a Residentiary Canon at St. East, Dean Hosam will be consecrated as George’s Cathedral. In 2006 Hosam accepted an Coadjutor Bishop in St. George’s invitation to Dean David’s retirement Eucharist. Cathedral on 14 June. In 2021 he will be He spoke in Dunham House about the situation installed as Archbishop of Jerusalem of the Palestinian Christians and many of us with oversight of a Diocese extending were impressed by his wisdom, humour and over five countries or territories, , lack of bitterness about what had happened. Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and The Anglican Palestinian Church was Syria, consisting of twenty-eight Father Hosam Naoum is installed as Dean of feeling very beleaguered and was congregations, over thirty Jerusalem in 2012 by Bishop concerned about its own wellbeing. At - charitable institutions including that time Christians (all denominations) - two major hospitals several clinics were only 2% of the total population in Israel and Anglicans were and rehabilitation centres, and more than a dozen schools. only a tiny percentage of the 2%. (This figure is now less that Elias (named after his father) Hosam was brought up in Shefa‘Amr 1.5%). These Christians see themselves as the living stones who in the Galilee and educated at Mar Elias High School, Idilin and stay and maintain the faith without which there would be no Holy attended St. Paul’s, Shefa‘Amr. He completed his initial Land. Since 1947 when the State of Israel came into being vast theological training at the College of the Transfiguration and numbers have been driven out and there is still a continuous Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. He was awarded trickle leaving today. a Master’s degree of Theology in Canon Law from Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria in 2011 and a Doctorate of In April 2007 Angela and I accepted an invitation to attend the

Divinity in 2018. Hosam was ordained in 1998 and made a in Installation of the Rt. Revd Suheil Salman Dawani as the fourteenth 1999; serving under Canon Hanna Mansour, taking responsibility Anglican Bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem. It was out for St. Phillips in , the Church of the Good Shepherd in of conversations at that time with Hosam that he requested an Rafidia and St Matthews in Zababdeh. In 2005 Hosam was exploration of the possibility of an informal visit between the appointed Canon Pastor of St. George’s Cathedral, Jerusalem with Palestinian parishioners at the Cathedral and in Hosam’s responsibility for the Arabic and English-speaking congregations, hometown of Shefa‘Amr. The fruits of the proposed visit were and was Acting Dean from 2007 – 2009. In May 2012 he was immeasurable both for us and Palestinian Christians as we would installed as the first non-English incumbent Dean. Hosam is be learning together in faith. Recognition should be given to the married to Rafa and they have three children, Wadi’ (15), Laurice fact that Hosam felt able to make this request and that he wished (13) and Crista (9). his fellow Palestinian Christians to experience, at first hand, the support that we as an established Christian Community could It was March 2001 when David Shannon, Headteacher of Hucknall offer. National School at that time, approached my wife Angela and said - that he was bringing a young Palestinian Priest into her Religious Over a six month period, some £10,600 was raised to meet the Education lesson. This handsome young man was an instant hit cost of twenty airfares in 2008, a coach on five days to collect and with the fifteen-year-old girls in her class. Hosam was staying with take the group from Heathrow and to London and York. The group the late Canon Fred Green in Hucknall and the late Dean David was met by the and given supper by Southwell Minster Chapter and Bishop George respectively. Members of the congregation agreed to host over twelve days in October and/or provide evening meals. It was at this time the group met Fr Fuad Dagher, who has become a much-loved priest and has visited several times since and has a parish partnership with All Hallows in Ordsall. (Retford). This was the Minster’s introduction to Palestinian Christians. It was a time of laughter and learning, enabling our visitors to tell their stories as widely as possible. We were better informed by hearing at first-hand how Christians live under challenging circumstances in the place where our faith began. From a relationship of trust and faith there emerged a common purpose to nurture the existing relationships and friendships. Dean Hosam takes a visiting group from the Minster to the Six members of the Minster group made a return visit to Galilee Church of the Ascension outside Jerusalem and Jerusalem, staying with host families. To further nurture the

6 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 existing relationships and Angela and David Lane represented the Dean and Chapter at friendships, the four couples who Hosam’s installation as Dean of St. George’s on Ascension Day comprised the Minster group at the 2012. Afterwards Hosam asked for support at St. George’s. Canon time agreed to host and meet the John and Jane Henson volunteered as sacristan and personal cost of six airfares in 2011, whilst assistant respectively. John and Jane supported Hosam over three others contributed towards further extensive visits at St. George’s up to June 2015. expenses for the visit. Hosam and Hosam was still helping to organise Palestinian children’s summer Bishop Suheil selected five young camps in Nazareth and Minster members offered group ambassadors from across the leadership support in 2012, 2013 and 2015. Nick and Vicki Thorpe, Diocese of Jerusalem. experienced choir trainers from the Minster congregation, Working in pairs they fulfilled an established a choir of 21 boys during two week-long visits in 2012 enormous programme including a and 2013. Group members met Hosam when he attended several contribution at the Diocesan meetings in London over time. He was able to visit in March 2018 Conference. The framework of the for 48 hours to meet with Dean Nicola to renew our friendship visit was of mutuality, giving and and have supper with the whole group. receiving, and the Minster Hosam will begin his ministry as Coadjutor Bishop and then Dean Hosam on a visit to congregation was able to introduce Archbishop at a sensitive time politically for Christians living in the Southwell Minster Palestinian Christians to the town, West Bank, Gaza and Galilee. It is essential that we as a Minster diocese and county. We estimated Community and beyond who know and love Hosam support him that over two thousand people were able to hear the Christian and his fellow Christians through our continuing friendship and perspective from those who live and work in the Holy Lands. The prayer. There needs to be a future for Christian men and women six ambassadors visited and spoke in eleven churches, nine from Galilee. schools, the Diocesan Conference, Nottingham Universityand Angela and David Lane Radio Nottingham. The leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations Leaves of Southwell Dementia, Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Outreach Project

s part of the Leaves of Southwell project, the Minster is Two participants have written about A working with Hilary Wellington of ‘Ginny’s Good Yarn’. The leaves and other aspects of the terms of the generous grant from the National Lottery Heritage natural world: Fund to preserve and enhance the carved leaves in the include engaging with the community at various levels. ‘I remember the taste of my Hilary is a practitioner of independent lifelong learning, and we Grandma's blackberry pie. We summarize this part of the project and its impact. called them brambles in the North. The hedgerows were full of wild The aims and objectives are to draw on the heritage of the fruit - rhubarb, gooseberries. And Minster’s mediaeval carved leaves in the Chapter House and people helped each other out. If Quire and thus work with people living with dementia, mental someone had gathered too much health difficulties or learning disabilities to give Interpretative they would share it with their lifelong learning and therapy. The project will use narrative and neighbours.’ craft work for transformative and emancipatory learning among Hilary Wellington diverse and hard-to-reach groups of people. ‘I used to love driving through Dalby Forest near Scarborough. The sun The theoretical base of this work comes from scholarly work and would be glinting through the trees and it would make the rowan research over recent decades. Participants will be enabled to berries shine like rubies.’ disrupt dominant ideologies, and to promote emancipatory self- knowledge, as opposed to accepting oppression or discrimination, As a bridge between the carvings and contemporary making and promoting diversity of voices and understanding. Researchers and shaping the project is using ‘The Lost Words’, the book by local disabled people will work together, encouraging high-quality author Robert Macfarlane, which he wrote as a response to the interpersonal care that implies recognition, respect, and trust. disappearance of Nature words from modern dictionaries.Some reactions we have received already are participants stating ‘the The actual practice is also based on academic models as those more you look, the more you see’ and finding their vocabularies with dementia remember their interaction with the environment. again for species of birds, butterflies, plants. The project has been operating since mid-February and is already accumulating valuable, vibrant and poignant narrative This part of the Leaves project is reminiscent of the therapeutic reminiscences, life history and reflections, and some pressiveim nature of many of the trees and bushes which are carved in the artwork inspired by the Leaves of Southwell. Minster’s unique leaves. Summary of a paper by Hilary Wellington

7 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 Meet Jonny Allsopp, Organist and Conductor nglish are known for their music, and even a lovely to have a choir he is E rural cathedral like Southwell Minster has a strong musical responsible for – which last foundation. In contrast, German cathedrals may have a voluntary happened at university. ‘I choir that sings once a month, and in a Sicilian cathedral where have given them quite a lot my wife and I attended Sunday Mass last year, a congregation of of new repertoire in the last hundreds was led by a small group of ladies who sang loudly into few months, and they have a single microphone. In the English Cathedral choral tradition, lapped it up… though of high-quality choirs sing at nearly every Sunday service and on course I am not scrapping most weekdays too. At the Minster there are boys and girls and the repertoire of my six professional men (Lay Clerks). Also the Minster Chorale predecessors.’ The Chorale provides leadership; this is a voluntary choir of up to thirty are going on tour with singers, many of whom drive more than half an hour to Southwell ’s voluntary to Schwerin in Northern Germany for rehearsals and services. Jonny Allsopp has conducted the after Easter for three days, for a concert of English church music Chorale since he arrived in Southwell last September to become (‘the Best of British!’) and a Sunday Mass. Assistant Director of Music. We wish Jonny well. Vincent Ashwin Jonny came from two years as at , which is the only Catholic cathedral in the world where Mass and Vespers (the equivalent of Evensong) are sung every day; he said: ‘What they have managed to build up in 120 years has preserved a heritage that was dying out.’ Mass is sung seven Southwell Music Festival Launch days a week usually by the boys and men, and the lay clerks sing Vespers half an hour before Mass each day. Though much of the singing is in plainsong, settings of the Mass on Sundays would be n view of the current worldwide and national situation music we would recognize in the Minster, by composers like I surrounding COVID-19, the Board of the Southwell Music Palestrina, Byrd, Mozart and Benjamin Britten. Festival has decided to cancel the launch concert for the 2020 At Westminster, Jonny was organ scholar, which involved playing Southwell Music Festival planned for Friday 17 April in the at Sung Mass two days a week, and accompanying the plainsong Minster, and by the time this edition of Southwell Leaves is at Vespers. This skill of accompanying plainsong psalms has come published it will be widely known that the Music Festival itself in handy in Southwell where our lay clerks sing Evensong on their (planned to take place between Wednesday 26 and Monday 31 own once or twice a week. ‘Accompanying the psalms provides August) has been put on hold. As Marcus Farnsworth has rightly the best opportunity for exploring the colours of the organ. Coming back to Anglican chant after two years at Westminster is said, “The safety of all concerned has to come first.” Success of most fulfilling. You can have some fun accompanying the psalms!’ the Festival requires numerous gatherings to rehearse in the Certainly members of the congregation find that good organ weeks leading up to it. There is no certainty, at this stage, that playing brings new interpretation to the words. they, the international travel usually necessitated by some of the musicians, or the gathering the Festival itself comprises can Before going to university, Jonny was organ scholar at Hereford be predicted to be safe. Cathedral, ‘which is why a setting like this [Southwell] appeals to me, because Hereford is very similar; it’s quite a close-knit community and everybody really knows everybody else.’ If circumstances change and allow, a more modest series of performances will be arranged during the original dates. Keep a As he is the main organist for services at Southwell, I asked Jonny lookout for announcements and further information on the about the two organs. One sits on the (Screen) and, Music Festival and Southwell Minster websites, and in the next though it is visible from the nave, faces the Quire; the other is louder, hidden in different bays of the above the nave, edition ofSouthwell Leaves. and is played for services there. ‘The Screen organ’, he said, ‘has a larger palette of colours, and when we do any interesting The Festival benefits from, and is very grateful for financial repertoire we try and use this organ. I live with the Screen Organ support from its local Sponsors and Friends. The Board is day by day; it is wonderful. The Nave organ is an excellent thankful that this will continue despite the disruption. instrument too. ‘A big carol service is no more or less important than anything else you do. I often find more satisfaction in everyday Evensongs; on a wet rainy Tuesday in January it can be almost as fulfilling as a rather demanding Mass setting on a big Sunday morning.’

The friendship among the men in the Music Foundation, including curry together every Thursday evening, is one of the attractions of Southwell Minster. ‘It was mentioned in the job particulars that the choir has a good social life, and they really do! Everyone gets on with everyone and there’s good camaraderie.’ from the 2019 Festival Asked about conducting the Minster Chorale, Jonny said it is

8 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 On the Road to Emmaus

Last year whilst on stewarding Community of the Beatitudes has duty, a regular visitor to the been resident there, taking care of Minster approached me and the archaeological remains. remarked how delightful it was to see Jonathan Clarke’s Stations of Another possible location is that the Cross reinstalled in the south of Abu Ghosh. It was first Quire. She was intrigued when I suggested as the location of informed her that there was Emmaus in 1280. This village was indeed a fifteenth station of the previously known as the resting cross located in the entrance drive place of the Ark of the at Sacrista Prebend. I often Covenant for twenty years encourage visitors to view it and between being retrieved from the they are often surprised by its size Philistines and being taken to and the fact that it is outdoors. In Jerusalem by King David around large letters is the word Emmaus a The Supper at Emmaus, Caravaggio 1601 1000 BC. In the 12th century, the place where in the bible a Crusaders built a church which has miraculous event took place. now been restored and serves as a Benedictine Monastery. Two events associated with the El-Qubeibeh, the third village of Emmaus are possibility, was a village on described in the New the Roman road to Lydda, Testament. The first, of course, just over seven miles refers the post resurrection northwest of Jerusalem. In Bible story (Luke 24) in which 1099 the Crusaders two disciples Cleopas and one, discovered a Roman fortress who is unnamed but is often there, which became known thought to be Simeon, are as Castellum Emmaus. The walking to Emmaus, three days site was taken in 1335 by after the Crucifixion and the the Franciscans, who began same day that Jesus’ tomb has an annual pilgrimage there been found empty. They meet before eventually building a a stranger on the road but do church on the site in 1902 not recognise him as Jesus and above what is believed to are shocked at the fact that he is unaware of what has happened be the foundations of Cleopas’ house. Colonia (also called there. The second event is when the disciples invite him to Qolonieh) is the final and most favoured location near the supper. It is then that Christ begins to explain the scriptures to modern suburb of Motza. It is mentioned in the book of Joshua as them. However, it is only when he has broken and blessed the a place where Jews collected willows for the Feast of Tabernacle. bread at supper that evening that they fully realise that the The debate continues. stranger is in fact Jesus, who then vanishes. Tom Hislop In Caravaggio’s renowned, powerful depiction of the supper, Jesus, unusually is beardless and the gestures and expressions on the part of the disciples vividly capture the moment of his revelation. In the Orsi painting Christ carries a staff and wears a hat looking very much like a pilgrim.

The name “Emmaus” most likely comes from the Hebrew word “Hammat” or “Hamta”, which means “hot spring.” However, over time, the exact location of the village as indicated in Luke’s gospel (approximately seven miles from Jerusalem), has become lost. So where was it really located? There are four possibilities.

The first of these is the traditional site of Emmaus-Nicopolis also known as Amwas, which is located off the main highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, overlooking the Ayalon Valley. From the 4th century onward, Nicopolis had been the traditional site of Emmaus. During the late Roman and Byzantine periods Emmaus’ status grew to that of a city ("polis") and it was named “Nicopolis. Located approximately twenty miles west of Jerusalem, it existed as a village in Palestine until 1967 before The Walk to Emmaus Lelio Orsi circa 1565-75 being destroyed during the Six-Day War. Since 1993, the Catholic

9 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 Holocaust Memorial Day Event

n the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on like Poland. In O 27 January 1945, the Minster hosted a moving event to January 1942, the commemorate the million and a half people, mostly Jews, who Nazis agreed their died there. The event formed part of the programme of the plans for what Leaves of Southwell project, which encourages events to reflect they called the on all who have interacted with the Minster’s Chapter House for “Final Solution” nearly 750 years. The Quire of the Minster was nearly full as one which would see hundred people from around shared theour h the wholescale of remembering. The event was led by Dr Helen Bates, the murder of all Community Engagement Coordinator of the Leaves project, Jews throughout whose work is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Germany and the This is a summary of her talk. German occupied territories ‘In terms of legacy, one of the most significant visitors to the Chapter House was a man called Nicholas Pevsner. His visit to On 27 January the Chapter House led to the publication of The Leaves of 1945, 75 years Southwell in 1945, also 75 years ago. Pevsner was moved by the ago, the loveliness of the leaves, and this “loveliness” is portrayed in The liberation of Leaves of Southwell by the fine photography of F.L. Auschwitz took Dr Helen Bates, Community Engagement Attenborough, father of John, Richard and . place. It was Coordinator for the Leaves Project described by the But Pevsner’s visit to Southwell in the early 1940s never should camera operator in the Soviet military film crew that recorded have taken place. He found himself searching for answers in the liberation of Auschwitz: these carved leaves in Southwell during a time of turmoil when "A ghastly sight arose before our eyes. People lay in bunks. They he was an exile in England from Nazi Germany. Nikolai Bernhard were skeletons clad in skin, with vacant gazes. Of course we Leon Pevsner had been born in Leipzig, Germany in January spoke with them. However, these were brief conversations, 1902. His parents were both Russian Jews who had emigrated to because these people who remained alive were totally devoid of Leipzig. Pevsner had initially been blind to the threat hatt the strength, and it was hard for them to say much about their time Nazis posed. Despite the Nazi’s anti-Semitic views, Pevsner’s self in the camp. They were suffering from starvation, and they were -denial about his Jewish identity made him disassociate himself exhausted and sick… Time has no sway over these recollections. and his family as people who could become the targets of Nazi It has not squeezed all the horrible things I saw and filmed out of intolerance. But in 1933 the Nazis took full power in Germany, my mind."’ and they declared a boycott of Jewish companies and in the same year expelled those they classed as Jews from public office. The event ended with the Dean leading a prayer, and Jo Bennett of the Minster School and James Furness-Roe the organ scholar When the Nazis banned Jews, Pevsner was 31 and married with played the theme tune from the film, Schindler’s List as children. He held a lecturing post at the University of Göttingen participants lit candles to remember the millions of Jews who from which he was dismissed. Keen to continue his academic were murdered. research, he searched for a post outside Germany and came to England in 1933. Pevsner’s parents, Annie and Hugo, stayed in Germany and although Pevsner worried about them remaining in Leipzig, he left it too late to arrange their passage as refugees to England. As the clouds of war built over Europe, the Nazis restricted Jewish emigration, but the British government negotiated the reception of ten thousand child Jewish refugees who were fostered by British families on the mercy mission which became known as the Kindertransport. These foster families included that of Frederick Attenborough, who later photographed the Leaves of Southwell for Pevsner’s book.

Pevsner’s parents left it too late to leave and his father, Hugo, died in January 1940; Annie, facing the prospect of “deportation” and all that she would endure, took her own life on the night of 10th February 1942. Pevsner had lost touch with her and when he heard of her death some months later, he wrote that he knew little “of all those worries and the orrorsh and how often she must have been in despair! I reproachmyself bitterly for so many things.” Participants lighting candles to the music of Schlindler’s List By mid-October 1941, the Nazis began a plan to deport Jews from Germany to ghettos in countries that they had occupied

10 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 The National Holocaust Centre and Museum

n the road from Ollerton near the village of Laxton, only Adults and older children O 12 miles from Southwell there is a little known move though an inspirational gem that may make a rewarding visit this exhibition that narrates Holocaust Memorial year. the history of pre-war Jewish life, the The Centre was the idea of James and Stephen Smith along with development of anti- their mother Marina who in 1991 visited Yad Vashem, Israel’s Semitism, Kristallnacht, national Holocaust museum. This Christian family were ghettoes, the Final Dolls taken from Jewish children challenged by their experience and James and Stephen realised Solution, survival and in a concentration camp that their education of the Holocaust at school and university choices. The museum had been seriously lacking. The trip changed the lives of the collection provides tangible evidence and a visual link to the family and they came back to the UK determined that the stories and lessons from the Holocaust. Holocaust should be understood by everyone and especially taught correctly to students at school. After many years of fund At certain times visitors may be able to hear survivors talking raising the National Holocaust Centre and Museum was born in and answering questions about their experiences. As these what was once the Smith family home. It is now the only survivors are getting older their testimonies have been national museum in the UK dedicated to teaching and learning preserved in film for future generations. lessons from the Holocaust and has developed expertise in the There is also a chance to spend a peaceful time in the acre of sensitive task of presenting the information to primary school picturesque garden that surrounds the museum. children. The statement of purpose of the Centre is: to provide a School children visiting the Centre are taken on an imaginary permanent memorial to the victims of the Holocaust; offer an journey following a fictional boy Leo from life in Nazi Germany understanding of the causes and events of the Holocaust to safety in the UK via Kindertransport. Leo’s story is told in a through a range of age-appropriate exhibitions and survivor series of exhibition rooms that represent pivotal points in his testimonies and to present programmes of learning, based on journey and reflect the look and feel of the historic climate of the Holocaust, that encourage personal responsibility and the the time. They are able to handle relevant objects and seefilm promotion of fairness and justice but also challenge learners to testimonies that bring Leo’s story to life. take positive action. Christine Kent

New appointed

owning Street has announced that the Revd Dr Andrew Bishop Andy will be consecration at 11am on 21 D Emerton, Dean of St Mellitus College, has been May, which is Ascension Day, and it is open to anyone to attend appointed as the next Bishop of Sherwood , to replace Bishop that service. He will then complete the academic year at St who retired in March. St Mellitus College is one of Mellitus’ College and move to Nottingham during the summer. the largest of the Church of England’s theological training He was to be formally welcomed into the diocese at the Minster institutions with a growing reputation for pioneering on Sunday 12 July at 3.30pm. approaches to training. Andy has been involved with St Mellitus since its earliest days, becoming Dean in 2015. As , Andy will work closely with the Diocesan Bishop, the Right Revd , in overseeing the mission and ministry of the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham. ‘It is a huge privilege to be called to serve as a bishop in the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham,’ said Andy. ‘It will be a delight to work with Bishop Paul and the clergy and lay leaders of the diocese to contribute to the vision for Growing Disciples and to help build confidence in the gospel of Jesus Christ across a diverse range of churches and local communities. I am xcitede and hopeful about this next stage of ministry.’ Bishop Paul said: ‘I am very pleased that will be joining us to serve alongside dedicated clergy and congregations making the good news of Jesus known in every community around the Diocese. As a fellow bishop sharing in the leadership of the diocese, we can be hopeful and confident that across our 300-plus churches and 75 church schools, in collaboration ithw other churches and partners, we may continue to make a bigger Bishop Paul and Dean Nicola in the Minster difference for the benefit of all who live and work in our great with ‘Pilgrim Passports’ county and city of Nottingham.’

11 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 with this – this fanatic. And once this Jesus has ‘Son of Man’ been properly and fairly tried by the Jewish Court,he will be by law handed over to the ecently, while trying to hunt down a particular book along the Civil Power. To me. And there’s an end of it!’ R bookshelves, I came across a copy of Dennis Potter’s play, So, Caiaphas has words with Judas, tries to ‘Son of Man’. Inside was a theatre ticket from the Barbican Centre persuade him that Jesus’ claim to be the dated 18 November 1995 – which took me back to that powerful Messiah must be properly examined by the and moving performance by the RSC, with a young Joseph Fiennes in ‘sanctified priesthood’ so they can make a the part of Jesus. pronouncement ‘for the guidance of their In his play, the emphasis is on Jesus’ humanity. He is a man flock’. All the High Priest wants, he tells a continually questioning who he is and what his calling is. During his reluctant Judas, is to prove that Jesus is from days in the wilderness he cries ‘Is it me? Is it – me? Is it time?’ He’s God: ‘if he is what he says he is, he has nothing to fear from me or heard God speaking, but has he misinterpreted His words? Has he any man!’ got it wrong? In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus’ doubts come flooding back: We see Jesus stumbling forward (s he on the right path?), but with ‘Father! Is it me? Is it? Is it me?’ Judas approaches, along with a the Sermon on the Mount he gets into his stride, growing in crowd carrying sticks and torches. Judas realises, too late, that he confidence and stature as he finds his voice: ‘An eye for an eye. A has no control over the situation. tooth for a tooth. Is that not so? Is that not our way?’ His disciples Caiaphas, when face to face with Jesus, while longing for proof that cry out: ‘Yes! Yes!’ it is indeed God’s Messiah, cannot contain his frustration at Jesus’ Yes! So, our forefathers have spoken. So, the world has always refusal to answer his questions and in a fury finds him ‘guilty of spoken. So, it speaks now. Look around! They have also said love heresy and the most foul blasphemies against the Law and the your kinsman . . . Love your compatriot. Love your own kind. And Prophets.’ He wants to make him a ‘warning to the confused, the hate the enemy. HATE-your-enemy. Right? gullible and the dissenting that here, in the Temple, only in the Temple, can one find the true, ordained authority of the Law and ‘Hate your enemy. But love your own kind. Your own sort of people. the Prophets.’ Your own crowd. Let us be cosy. You have come together here in this place. You have things in common. Oh, cosy, cosy people. You Pilate, bemused by Jesus, would half like to exculpate him but finally are safe here . . .’ And he continues, lulling them with a sense of loses patience with him, ordering him to be crucified: ‘Take the idiot comfort, until bursting out, ‘Do you want me to congratulate you for away! I confirm sentence. He’s had every chance. Every chance.’ loving those who love you? Eh? Eh?’ There’s silence, and a pause And so the play ends with the brutal and bloody torture and before he drops his bombshell: ‘Love your enemies.’ crucifixion. A large cross is laid on the floor of the stage. The disciples, wielding hammers, circle round the cross, rhythmically Pilate, when he hears of this, is none too pleased himself; he swinging the hammers down on to the wooden beams, the sounds immediately understands the implications: ‘Love – your enemies? echoing round the auditorium. Jesus, in an agony of pain, cries, ‘Is it And put down our swords? By the gods . . . a madman, you say?’ he me-e?’ Then silence before crying out ‘It is me. It is me it is me it is shouts at his Roman commander, ‘Nothing to worry us?!’ me it is me . . . It – is – ACCOMPLISHED!’ Great crowds flock to Jesus, to hear this new teaching which turns The spotlight fades and the stage left in darkness. everything they’ve known upside down. He is hailed as the Messiah by people hungry for someone to rescue them from the Romans. We, as God’s ‘Easter people’ know that it’s a story half told. But But messiahs are two-a-penny in this nation in turmoil; a stream of Dennis Potter leaves his audience – apart from feeling stunned – to agitators and rabble-rousers occupy the crosses of the Roman weigh the evidence for themselves. As Simon Peter says early on: rulers. Jesus wonders: Is he just another of them? Is he deluded? ‘Simple. It’s very simple. You either believe him or not.’

A turning point comes when Jesus knows what he has to do; he has Penny Young to test his calling in Jerusalem. ‘God won’t let me alone. Not now. I am His . . . Oh, oh, He burns inside me . . . The Lord God is in my head and in my eyes and in my heart and in my mouth.’ Jesus Some Green Tips realises – accepts – that he is the one chosen by God. But he’s between a rock and a hard place. The crowds, hailing him more and hree new ideas have come to my attention of small but more as the people’s Messiah, push him further and further into the T effective ways in which we can continue seeking to care for arms of the religious authorities, who have agreed with the Roman this planet as best we can. governor to put down any troublemakers. The situation is getting Cancel the paper catalogues coming through the door that you no out of control. In Jerusalem Jesus becomes ‘holed up’ in the Temple, longer want, by phoning their orders number and asking to be as Pilate puts it – ‘yes, the bloody Temple where we can’t get at deleted from their mailing list. him’ or they’d have an insurrection on their hands. So –‘so we let Once warmer weather comes, choose ice cream cornets rather the Jews deal with their own damned Messiah. And we make sure than the tubs made of reinforced card with plastic spoons which that they do by turning the screw on their own authorities. All those end up in landfill. in power understand power. We talk the same language. Caiaphas has kept his people together by demanding this, conceding that. We When going for a meal at a restaurant take a re-usable plastic pot have kept overall authority by conceding this, demanding that. It is to bring home the food you can’t eat when portions are too big! the language of politics, the dialogue of common sense. We Do keep the ideas coming! threaten to replace Caiaphas. We threaten to plunder the Temple coffers. Oh, a host of things! Then they will understand. And deal Angela Ashwin

12 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 A New Deal for Climate Justice Christian Aid Week, 10 – 16 May 2020

hristian Aid has more than 70 years’ experience of working C globally in partnership with local groups to enable disadvantaged communities to thrive. The charity tackles the root causes of poverty so that women, men and children the world over are strengthened against future knocks. This year the focus is on climate change including water. From the indigenous communities whose homes have been destroyed by Amazon fires, to the farming communities in Malawi starving because of drought, Christian Aid works with people who are not facing a climate crisis - they are already living with it! Those who have done the least to cause this crisis are now living and dying with its impacts. Every last drop – fetching water during a drought How does the charity help? Here is one example: Faith’s fields used to be dirt and dust. Ongoing drought in Kenya invest in decarbonising the UK economy in a way that addresses meant next to nothing grew. Water was scarce. Droughts are now economic and social inequalities. more frequent and more intense due to the climate crisis. Southwell Minster has supported Christian Aid for many years and Without water, Faith and her husband Steven couldn’t grow crops. we have so far managed to maintain our impressive group of Without crops they didn’t have enough to eat or sell. Hunger was a volunteers who deliver and collect envelopes for the house to reality. Sending their children to school an impossibility. Faith says: house collection. Thank you to all who do this - not always a ‘The weather has changed because when I was young there was a pleasant task as the doorstep encounter is not inevitably friendly, lot of rain and food was plenty. Today the rains are very poor. although in most instances it is. There was also a lot of livestock and today there are very few.’ But now Faith grows crops that are lush and green thanks to a We are always very pleased to receive new offers of help and nearby dam. Her local community got together to build the sand would encourage you to consider becoming a volunteer collector. dam with the support of Christian Aid’s partner ADSE. The dam Please contact Helen Sills (01636 815173) or Jean Jackson (01636 gives Faith’s community resilience in times of drought. A water 813623) if you are interested in finding out more. source like this gives people like Faith a chance to not just survive, Helen Sills, Jean Jackson, but thrive. Minster representatives on Southwell’s Christian Aid committee Christian Aid Southwell is ecumenical, with representatives from Our Lady of Victories, Southwell Methodist Church, Holy Trinity and the Minster on the steering group. Our annual activities are a Lent Lunch, exhibition and house to house collection. From time to time Foxes in Ashford we have a bucket collection for emergency appeals. The cock crows. We are grateful to the Minster shop managers Amy and Nicola for You can tell it is a fair morning. being a drop off point for envelopes at the shop during Christian A half-eaten hedgehog lies on the grass. Aid week - this raised £525 towards last year. You bury it in the compost heap. Disintegration will happen only too soon A New Deal for Climate Justice is the focus of Christian Aid Week As earth becomes earth and ashes become ashes. 2020 and will feature in the Southwell house to house collection I look out of the window. which last year raised over £8,000 for work with pregnant mothers A dog fox sits smug in the sun, in Sierra Leone, our best result to date. We hope for the same The orange coat fit and fine, generous response to this year’s vital work. The attitude of a prime minister In charge of the garden, in charge of the grass,

In 2020, the UK government will be hosting the UN climate talks, Enjoying the leisure of a holiday. giving it the opportunity to be a champion for climate justice. But to be a real champion, it must take rapid action at home and Behind the shed enters a vixen Glad to be alive, as rats are alive, globally. As rabbits are alive and tender. Christian Aid wants the UK Government to deliver a New Deal for She rolls delightedly over the lawn, Climate Justice. Specifically to: And her white belly gleams in the sunlight. Life for her is good. transfer its fair share of finance and technology to poor and The cock crows. climate-vulnerable countries You can tell it is a fair

stop fueling fossil fuel expansion and support clean, renewable morning. energy instead develop renewable energy without exploiting people or Jenny Derbyshire destroying the environment in the Global South curb the over-consumption that is driving climate breakdown

13 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 Forgotten Fasts - Forgotten Ways

lga Hudson lives in Southwell and Our government in the UK has no O is a member of the Greek Orthodox fear of Pancake Day, but for the Church. She writes about Orthodox militantly atheistic Soviet State, with practices. most churches closed, Lent was such a threat that they forcibly restricted the Christ is Risen! ‘The fast is over. Let us sale of vegetables (raw or tinned) . celebrate the Feast!’ The joy of Easter, Why? Because this visible sign of faith, the holy and glorious Resurrection of our this traditional rhythm, giving shape Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, lasts 50 and meaning to life, was so deeply days until the Day of Pentecost. Then ingrained. To observe Lent was although Greeks fly kites and people bring inadvisable; to observe Easter was greenery into church, suddenly The potentially life-threatening. In our Liturgy (Holy Communion) is succeeded by the ‘Kneeling Prayers’. own time, Orthodox anywhere may choose to fast, at least (We normally stand to pray). So, as June Ordinands know, partially, from everything capable of drowning out the voice of Petertide is preceded by a recognition of the solemnity of lifetime God; radio, television, the internet, and especially social media. dedication. Orthodox still observe the Apostles’ Fast, (8- 42 days, Why fast? Through prayer and obedience (listening) , we grow in from 8 days after Pentecost the Feast of St Peter and St Paul), faith, we hear the call of compassion. Recognising our own familiar to Pope Leo I (461 AD). vulnerability, our dependence on God’s grace, we strive to acquire According to tradition, the apostles, like Christ, having received ‘the mind of Christ’(for Metropolitan Anthony, ‘ the heart and the gift of the Holy Spirit, remained in Jerusalem fasting and soul’ as well). Age-old liturgy speaks of ‘a noble contest’, ‘fasting praying in preparation for their ministry. So, during this fast we that cuts away all evil from the heart’ and ‘closing all the doors thank God for their lives, faith, witness, endurance and through which the passions enter and looking up to the Lord’. martyrdom. Through them we learn that preparation implies This year, fears about Climate Change and the Corona Virus have action, discipleship costs and, astonishingly, that our own bodies, brought about a widespread spirit of repentance, though few too, are temples of the Holy Spirit. Such insights are the fruit of would call it that. To protest is good, but to fast implies gratitude any serious fast. to God for his goodness, the beauty of Creation, the value of every The Orthodox year is marked by a rhythm of fasts and feasts. The living thing. In our highly sophisticated visual age, mindfulness is Major Fasts are Lent (The Great Fast) the most extreme (almost 50 widely practised, people understand patterns and symbols. So days), The Apostles Fast, the Dormition Fast (1- 14 August) , what if ‘dry January’ or ‘Veganuary’ were transposed to Lent, or preceding the ‘falling asleep’ of the Virgin Mary, and Advent (the ‘flexitarianism’ ‘baptised’ by a return to the ancient fasts? In

Nativity Fast) (15 November - 25 December). There are also fasting we become ‘lighter’, physically, psychologically, spiritually. several holy day fasts, and in addition, most Wednesdays and A good fast is a joyful time, a return to Eden. Fridays are fast days in memory of the betrayal and crucifixion of Olga Hudson Christ. Monastics also fast on Monday (the day of the angels). Starvation? No, balance. Not to mortify the body – the Desert Fathers’ nuts and dates are highly nutritious- but to quicken the soul. Sometimes fewer in number, meals are not sparse. We usually give up meat, dairy products, and in Lent, with two exceptions, fish; also wine and oil. Surprisingly, on Saturday to Sunday, wine is always allowed; a recognition that Sunday (‘Resurrection’ in Russian) is always special. Nowadays in Lent, those who observe the fast most strictly may take supplements. Who fasts? Physically fit adults, but not the ill, the elderly (me), pregnant women or children under 14. Depending on our circumstances, we freely observe the fast insofar as we are able; a guest, for instance, must never reject hospitality. Almost everyone will try especially hard in the first week of Lent and in Holy Week. Comfortingly, St John Chrysostom’s Easter Sermon always insists that ‘all are invited to the Feast… those who have fasted and those who have not…’ Those who have fasted will unquestionably gain their reward; it is amazing just how good a boiled egg can taste on Easter night! How do we fast? Fasting is pride-filled unless accompanied by prayer and the desire for newness of life. We must also abstain from gossip, unruly passions (anger etc.), egoism and judgementalism. Circumstances change. For my mother, a child in pre-revolutionary Russia, Lent was a time of delicious, unusual food; for many Russians now it means strict observance, closed theatres etc.

14 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020

Some Reflections on Contemporary Church Life

ouse groups at H Southwell Minster I am quite diligent in my prayers, always offer an opportunity to reflect praying for others first and putting myself upon Church life, and here are and my needs last. a couple of reflections that I study the Bible in great depth using have emerged from one of commentators such as William Barclay and them: other aids to try and understand what I am The First Epistle of Paul to the reading. Cathedral and Parish Church of I also attend as many Bible study groups as possible to increase the Blessed Virgin Mary Southwell. my knowledge and to share with others. “From Paul, a servant of Jesus and an Apostle chosen by God to I attend Church services on a regular basis and I also tithemy preach his good news. income. To the ministers and congregation of Southwell Minster. May

God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and Your word is indeed a lamp to guide me and a light for my path. peace. I am not challenged about my faith and beliefs, but I would defend them to the best of my ability. It is with heart-warming thanks that I hear good reports about you. Your welcome of strangers is warm and friendly. It is good I do acknowledge that I have sinned against you – through that you have a ‘Pick and Mix’ of services so that all weakness and my own deliberate fault and for this I am truly worshippers are catered for and ministered to. sorry. I also find it pleasing that in some of these services there is a Praise ye the Lord.’ ‘Laying on of Hands’ for individuals’ physical and spiritual But the tax-collector stood at a distance and would not even needs. raise his face to heaven, but beat his breast and said: I also hear that you try and cater for peoples’ physical needs in ‘God, have pity on me, a sinner. the form of a ‘Food Bank’. When I examine my spiritual life there does not seem much to I also understand that music of a high standard is performed, show. My prayers are few and far between – and they tend to thus helping people to be uplifted from the ordinary to het be Arrow Prayers. sublime. I do have a Bible but not very thumbed through. I have I would be failing in my duty if I did not mention in my letter difficulty in understanding a lot of what it says. the ‘do’s and ‘don’ts’ of living a Christian life. My attendance at Church is very hit and miss and it would not Always be mindful of others and their needs; do not gossip, survive on my giving. maliciously or otherwise; do not tell lies; be honest in all things. I have to admit that my life is not as it should be – there being There are many more things to tell you and I hope to do this lots of shortfalls. when I visit you. From what I know of the Bible and its contents there are lots of Although I am absent in body, I am with you in spirit. stories that I believe are just that – stories, hard to grasp and May the resurrected Christ be at the forefront in all things. hard to believe. Under Christ’s control, the whole body I nourished. You are the people of God and as such must witness to God’s If I were to eliminate the stories I could not believe, then the presence in you. Bible would be a fraction of what it is now. God forgive me, a sinner.’ The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God be with Glynn Lloyd you all, now and always. Amen”. Thoughts and Reflections on Psalm 119:97 112.– Whilst considering Psalm 119, the feeling arose in the group that the psalmist might have been somewhat ‘full of himself’, particularly in the shape of verses 97 to 112. The feeling provoked a reflection upon the parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector, which has been paraphrased as follows: ‘The Pharisee. Luke 18:10 –13. Once there were two men who went to the Temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, the other a tax- collector. The Pharisee stood apart by himself and prayed: ‘I thank God, that I am not greedy, dishonest, or an adulterer, like everyone else. I thank you that I am not like that tax- collector over there. I fast two times a week, and I give you a Pharisee and Tax Collector by an Hungarian artist tenth of all my income.

15 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 Education News

o cheer readers up at this strange time I thought I would communities have become our friends over the years and very T share some of this term’s highlights in the education much look forward to their time at the Minster. department. I love seeing the surprise and joy on general visitors’ faces as they walk into the Minster and encounter the In February, we took our volunteers on a visit to Peterborough place full of young children. This is an email from a visitor who Cathedral to visit their learning centre and to hear about how happened upon our recent Inter-faith day: they teach children about the Anglo Saxons.

‘I visited your beautiful Minster yesterday. I would like to say We found out that scaffolding and lead work is more exciting what a warm and friendly welcome I received than we realised as our wonderful builders Gary the moment I stepped through the door. and Michael from HCR took groups of staff and There were also groups of school children the general public on tours of the quire roof. visiting who I understand were having a Faith They also came and gave lead-welding Day. They were all well behaved and a credit demonstrations at the February Family Fun Day. to their schools and their parents.’ (March 2020) Children enjoyed looking at the evidence and piecing together what is known about the Roman A couple from Hampshire arrived just in time Villa at a ‘Romans in Southwell’ day, discussing to see all the children filing back to their everyday life and learning from volunteers from seats after a day of ‘Time Travelling’, our Southwell Community Archeology Group (SCAG) twice yearly pilgrimage weeks for primary what an archaeologist does on the only fine day school children. They stopped me as I stood of the week in early March. poised to speak to the children, anxious to tell me how fantastic it was to be there while We were incredibly lucky to squeeze in a full the place was full of such energy and youth! I week of Time Travelling, just before everywhere Children on an Inter-Faith Day invited them to stay and join us for our shut down. 1500 children attended and our closing assembly, and I spotted marvellous team of volunteers did a them at the back joining in with sterling job, as ever. the song and prayer. I’m also very excited by the launch I hope readers of Southwell of the crafting competition. We are Leaves agree that the work with hoping to gather a collection of schools and families is an ‘green men’ (or women) for use in essential part of the mission and schools’ outreach sessions or here outreach of the Cathedral. at the Minster to help children learn Whether visitors come as about the Chapter House. You will pilgrims for reasons of faith, or find more information about this in as people interested in the this publication, and we invite history / heritage side of the anyone who has any skills with building, no one, I think, can knitting, crochet, felting or other argue that the future of these fabric based crafts to enter. It may wonderful, spiritual places be ideal if you are looking for ways cannot survive into the next Diana Ives with a (© Newark Advertiser) to occupy your time when in century and beyond without the isolation over the next few weeks. passion, interest and engagement of today’s young people. Matt, Helen and I would like to end by wishing all staff, volunteers and visitors to On to the highlights of the term, then: the Minster all the best during these difficult In January we hosted an ‘Anti-slavery days. My hope is that we can be together Conference’, facilitated by the ‘Just again soon in the wonderful building we all Enough Group’. Children from eleven share. Thank you for supporting the primary schools came together to learn education department and, if you are about the history and abolition of slavery interested in learning more about what we – and how to spot it in the modern do, praying for our work or volunteering world. with us we can add you to our mailing list. Please get in touch by email or post. Our Early March was the first of what was to roles and contact details are on pages 22- have been two Inter Faith days in 23. partnership with the Diocesan Schools Advisors and the St Philip’s Centre in Diana Ives, Helen Bates, Matt Hustwayte Leicester. Faith practitioners from the A Roman Archaeology Day Muslim, Jain, Buddhist and Jewish

16 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 Inequalities of Health and Wealth

ou may have read it. A recent The Big Issue included an living for all, and creating and developing healthy and sustainable Y interview with Steve Coogan. Coogan plays the part of places and communities. These were not the aspirations ofa Sir Richard dreamy-eyed left-wing idealist, but the conclusions of serious and highly reputed public health experts. McCreadie, the central character in Greed which was then Those that watch these things have noticed that the steady opening in cinemas. To quote The Big Issue, “Greed is the improvement in average life expectancy over recent decades has tragicomic tale of an obnoxious, super-rich retailer who has made come to a halt. From 1981 to 2010 it rose from around 71 to billions on the back of paying poverty wages, aggressive tax around 79 among men and from around 77 to some 83 among avoidance, bullying, bribery and basking in the vicarious glow of women. There has been little further increase since 2010. Among paid-for celebrity friends.” It is no secret that Sir Richard women living in the most deprived areas of the country average McCreadie is a thinly disguised characterisation of Sir Philip Green life expectancy has fallen. Overall, this is a slowdown in life of BHS, Topshop and Arcadia fame. Coogan is quoted as saying, “I expectancy not witnessed in England for 120 years. It prompted was interested in the fact that it was a story about poverty and the Health Foundation to commission Sir Michael and his team to wealth and the disparity review where we have got to. Many of between them. It’s about the the findings are familiar but it is striking huge yawning chasm to see them alongside one another. between rich and poor in this world, which not many Although there have been improvements people seem to be talking in children’s readiness for school as a about”. That yawning chasm result of early years programmes, these is not a fantasy or the stuff of improvements are much less among low- a film-maker’s imagination. It income children living in areas of lower is a palpable reality and it has deprivation than comparable children in wide and unwelcome areas of higher deprivation, pointing to an consequences. independent effect of inequality. Rates of child poverty have increased to their pre- One of the palpable realities 2010 levels with over four million children is that wealth inequalities are affected. The number of school exclusions bad for our health. In 2010 has risen. There has been an increase in Richard Wilkinson and Kate Monaco, Playground of the rich poor quality work, especially part-time, Pickett drew attention to the insecure employment. The number of fact that countries such as people on zero hours Japan, where wealth inequality is relatively contracts has increased low, have a much lower rate of mental illness significantly and so has the than countries such as the UK and the USA. incidence of work-related That may not be altogether surprising, stress. There has been an unfortunate though it is. What is more increase in impoverished striking is that inequalities have a bearing not working households, and only upon our psychological well-being, but wealth inequalities have also upon our physical health and life widened. Homelessness expectancy. and rough sleeping have In February, the Health Foundation published risen significantly and Health Equity in England. This is an update on there are now more Sir Michael Marmot’s 2010 Fair Society children in homeless Healthy Lives. Sir Michael is one of the families than there were world’s most respected public health experts ten years ago. and epidemiologists. Fair Society Healthy Lives had been commissioned in response to Where do we as a (largely) How one half lives (The Independent) - concerns about health inequalities from across church going and (largely) the political spectrum. It concluded that health inequalities are affluent community stand? not inevitable and can be significantly reduced, and that their Concerned, possibly, but what do we really feel about the consequences matter across the social gradient. It is not just a contrast between Sir Philip Green and a single mother striving to question of poor health for the poor and good health for care for her children in a grotty flat on unreliable benefits and a everyone else. Everyone below the top has greater risk of worse part time job? It might be worth considering how often that can health than those at the top. Fair Society Healthy Lives made a slip into “Good for you, mate” and “It’s probably her own fault”. number of recommendations with a view to addressing these Considering the consequences of health and wealth inequalities findings. They included giving every child the best start in life, might suggest, instead, that they point to a more collective enabling all children, young people and adults to maximise their blindness, and how God might be revealing it to us. capabilities and have control of their lives, creating fair Hugh Middleton employment and good work for all, ensuring a healthy standard of

17 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 Books of Hours – Medieval Bestsellers

ne of the favourite books from my collection is a miniature Christmas but would also include beautifully coloured scenes O edition, beautifully reproduced selection of folios from a depicting agricultural life according to the month and the season. range of small Books of Hours in their original sizes. It is impossible Often the sign of the zodiac would be placed at the top of the to cover the topic adequately in a short article, but I hope to whet page, because in medieval times stars were closely linked to the your appetite for what are essentially beautiful works of Christian timing of the agricultural year. In the image below the aurus,T the art. Books of Hours came from a long tradition of illuminated bull and Gemini, the twins and the chariot of the sun can be seen, manuscripts produced roughly between 1100 and 1600, though and in the main picture a May 1st procession celebrating the Feast The Book of Kells and The Lindisfarne Gospels, both deserving of of Love is depicted. separate articles, date from a After the Calendar came much earlier period. Of course, sequences from the Gospels, there are many others. and two prayers to the Virgin. We have the Monasteries to Following this there is most thank for instigating the first importantly the Hours of the proper Illuminated manuscripts Virgin. Each Hour would be such as Bibles and Psalters and accompanied by a page or half- Breviaries which were all lavishly page illustrated scene from her illuminated with bold colours life, such as the Annunciation. and fine detail. By the end of the The Hours of the Cross and the 13th Century Books of Hours Holy Spirit which follow are became widespread. Today brief and are made up of a there are literally thousands of hymn, antiphon and a prayer. different Books of Hours all over Finally, there is a sequence of the world and they are much Seven Penitential Psalm, The desired by bibliophiles and Litany, and prayers to be said collectors. They are unique in their combinations of art, religion over a coffin, Offices of the Dead and, completing the order, is The and daily life and are truly fascinating to explore. Suffrages of the Saints which again might include prayers to St Michael and Saint John after the initial prayers to the Trinity. Books of Hours resulted from a demand by lay people to have their own individual prayer book to follow the Church’s daily Books of Hours developed over time but pages in the original form routine of devotion as carried out by monastic orders. The Hours were distinctive in three ways. The letter of the alphabet or initial from the Greek hora refer to various times of the day and not to would dominate the page, the centre of which would feature a the mechanised sixty-minute hour we are now familiar with. In miniature, from the Latin minimum meaning red lead which was short, they refer to the Canonical hours: Matins, Lauds, Prime, used to highlight the colour of the initial. A key feature is the Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline in which the daily liturgy border which surrounds the central picture or miniature and often was celebrated, thus following Roman practice and Jewish the whole page, and often represented by ivy or vine leaves tradition. Two of the most familiar sprouting golden leaves. Books and and celebrated ones are The styles varied enormously but they Bedford Book of Hours( my are quite simply a visual feast. favourite) and the most widely known, Les Tres Riches Heures of This has been a just a simple the wealthy French nobleman, le overview of a huge area of artistic Duc du Berry (1340 – 1416. As a and religious heritage. There are great patron of the arts in general numerous online libraries across the he commissioned several Books of world that allow access to original Hours. Les Tres Riches Heures was manuscripts. I encourage you to initially created by the Limbourg have a look. Brothers, Paul, Jean and Herman By the middle of the 15th Century as but was not completed by them. printing developed particularly in Most Books of Hours are France, Books of Hours were being essentially a compilation of mass produced (the first in 1486) devotional texts and usually, and became the equivalent to the although it can vary, follow a strict modern bestselling paperback. As pattern consisting of eleven personal prayer books, they will be sections, beginning with the well- thumbed and were considered Calendar and ending with as one of the most precious of a Suffrages of the Saints, that each person’s possessions. In some ways Calendar month would take up like our own first bibles. two pages. It would indicate feast days and festivals such as Tom Hislop

18 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 The Leaves of Southwell Conference: A Portuguese perspective

ndreia Rodrigues is a Museum and Heritage Development their meaning. In Chris A MA student at Nottingham Trent University who is Brooke’s words: “Stone originally from Lisbon but has studied in Nottingham for the last Carving is freedom from six years. She is completing a work placement on the Leaves of the line and the chisel Southwell project which is funded by the National Lottery becomes the pencil”. Heritage Fund and is centred around the conservation of the Attending the Chapter House. Andreia hopes to combine her interest in conference has conservation with her experience of working with ceramics to demonstrated to me the interpret the Leaves of Southwell in different ways. important role the National Lottery Andreia has shared her thoughts about the conference: Heritage Fund plays in ‘The Leaves of Southwell conference was very informative, and I safeguarding and thought there was a good mix of different topics presented and a enhancing the heritage Andreia’s ceramics fantastic opportunity for each speaker to share their insights and of the Chapter House, inspired by the natural world research about the Chapter House. by helping specialists identify the Dr Claire Hartwell’s theories about the Leaves of Southwell and development of British character and identity in architecture and their symbolic meaning, through its connection to God’s creation decoration through arts and crafts. It also creates a focus to and the season of Harvest, were insightful and I have to agree ensure the community can enjoy their heritage and pass it on for that the leaves’ symbolism are open to interpretation, and the future generations. Without this kind of funding this heritage way we view the Chapter House is open to creative would probably be lost forever.’ interpretation but with strong religious connotations. Helen Bates, Community Engagement Coordinator for the Leaves As a craftsperson, I found Paul Ellis’s work and the process of Southwell project, noted that over 100 people attended the behind his stone carving mastery very informative. Chris conference. She wanted to thank the speakers, on behalf of the Brooke’s spectroscopy analysis raised the possibility that organisers, for giving their time to share their wonderful centuries ago, colours such as blues, reds and greens were specialist knowledge on the Chapter House. She also present in the medieval carvings of the Chapter House, which acknowledged the support given from the vergers in preparing was very exciting. for the conference and for making sure things ran as smoothly as possible on the day. Finally, she gave special thanks to all those But more importantly, what I took away from the Conference is who supported the event by buying tickets and to thosewho that unquestionably the Chapter House and the leaves set my volunteered to make the day a success by serving the teas and imagination to think further about my Portuguese heritage and coffees and carrying out the registration and stewarding on the the similarities that exist in the architecture and carvings in day. cathedrals, churches and monasteries in my country. I found Helen Bates myself looking for similar decorative elements and to interpret

Participants at the Leaves of Southwell Conference, 29 February 2020

19 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 An update from the Lay Chair of Newark and Southwell Deanery

s I write, the Deanery and the Diocese are in the middle of A a transition, which is both exciting and challenging. With the Ven moving to the Blackburn Diocese, our Area Dean Revd Mark Adams has been asked to fulfil some of the duties of the . The immediate consequence of this is that Revd Andrew Porter of Holy Trinity has been asked to fulfil the duties of the Area Dean. I have to say that the ‘acting up roles’ are going well, especially as we also have a new ‘acting’ deanery administrator, Kate Banks, covering Louise Riley’s post (Louise is now working at St Mary Magdalene Church, Newark). Interviews for the next Archdeacon of Newark take place on April First, after which the way forward will become clearer. Change is always a challenge but uncertainty during a transition can be unsettling. Having said farewell to Revd Anna Alls, who is now vicar of Burton Joyce and other villages, we are preparing to say farewell to Revd Zoe Burton, who will become vicar of Rainworth and Blidworth as well as Area Dean of . This Revd Zoe Burton with Bishop Paul at Ollerton; means that a fair number of parishes will be in transition (vacancy) she is moving to become vicar of around Easter. Also, Revd Chris Lee and his wife, Ruth, will be Rainworth and Blidworth moving from Newark to Mansfield as his curacy comes to an end. Please pray for all those congregations that they will be able to recruit to serve them, to continue to grow disciples younger, wider and deeper.

Within the deanery sit both the Minster and Jubilee House! The Diocese said farewell to Bishop Tony and Lucille as they retire from the See of Sherwood, though their farewell service at the Minster on Mothering Sunday was unable to take place. I somehow doubt that Tony will actually retire for some considerable time, even when they get to Lancashire! An announcement of the next Bishop of Sherwood , Rev Andy Emerton, can be found on another page. We did have two new important Jubilee House posts being filled at the start of March with Martin Cooper (a resident of our deanery) coming as Chief Executive and Nigel Frith joining the staff as Diocesan Director of Education. So, some transition is completed, just a little more to go.

The next change is that at this year’s annual parochial church meetings, parishes have to elect members to the Deanery Synod, which starts another triennium in June. Please pray for those who volunteer, or are persuaded or even cajoled into being members, especially as between August and October they will be asked to vote for the Diocesan Representatives to General Synod with a new electronic system being used for the first time. More change!

In all of this I am grateful for the support of all members of the Deanery Synod and to the co-opted representatives from the Minster for their support in the last three years, during which I believe we have had good meetings and sometimes not mentioned Parish Share.

Finally, please pray for a period of stability so we can all concentrate on growing disciples.

Michael Wilson

20 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 Did you know... Our windows range in date from mid-sixteenth century to just four years ago? I n the last issue we looked at the foundation of glass making York and were installed by him in 1996. and one example of Victorian glass manufacturer in the En route to the newest window, pause to look at the Bramley Minster. Let us now look at five different windows, or groups of Window in the North , inserted to mark the bicentenary of windows, from the oldest to the latest. England's favourite cooking apple, which has its origins in the town. The four lower lights in the East end are probably the most Installed in March 2009, this window was designed by Helen important glass in our Minster, although this is not their original Whittaker, again of the Barley Studios in York, and reminds us that home. They came from France and were part of the scheme of the Bramley originates from pips planted by Mary Brailsford in a windows in the Knights Templar Temple church in Paris, Southwell garden in 1809. demolished at the time of the French Revolution. These four panels I conclude with a look at the newest window in the Minster, were bought by Henry Gally Knight, a local antiquarian who found installed in March 2016. This new War Memorial window is found them in a second-hand shop in Paris, and given to the Church in in the South Quire aisle, nearest the Transept. It was commissioned 1818. They were made for round-headed Romanesque windows from Nicholas Mynheer, a fine art painter and sculptor from and adapted to our Gothic pointed frames, as can be seen most Oxfordshire who was chosen in 2014 from an initial 12contenders. clearly in the middle two panels. This quite remarkable window, which should be viewed together with a stone plaque beneath, is full of symbolism and rigorous Four subjects are depicted here. If we look at just the left hand simplicity, details of which are explained in a leaflet to be found one, we see the Baptism of Jesus, with Christ standing in the river near the window. Jordon, whilst St John the Baptist on his left pours water from a ewer. The other three show the Raising of Lazarus, the Triumphal Surely this modern window justly embellishes our unique building? Entry into Jerusalem and the Mocking of Jesus. James Pinder, on behalf of Southwell Minster Guild of Stewards In 1991 very costly conservation was carried out on these four panels; variations in temperature and humidity had caused some of the paint to lift from the glass. The window is now isothermically double-glazed to protect it. As well as giving some protection Building progress against vandalism, the all-round ventilation, with both sides of the glass being at the Minster's internal temperature, prevents he work to re-roof the Quire is going well. The work is condensation. This work was carried out by the Keith Barley T being funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund

Studios in York. (NLHF) as part of the Leaves of Southwell project to protect The four panels in the upper lights of the east window are a and enhance the medieval carved leaves in the Chapter House. marked contrast to the 16th century windows beneath them. They The Victorian slates have been removed because the nails show the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, each holding them in place had perished, and a new lead roof has with his winged emblems, Man, Lion, Calf and Eagle respectively. been put on. Part of the project was to take members of the They were made by John Clayton and Alfred Bell of London and Minster staff and a few volunteers up on the roof to see how installed in 1876. the work was progressing. This part of the project should be Let us now turn our gaze to the opposite end of the Minster, the finished in the early summer, and the scaffolding will be taken Great West window. The stone framework of this wonderful down in July. window dates from about 1450 and is in the Perpendicular style of th Meanwhile, the Chapter House will be closed from May 4th for Gothic architecture. Like some other 14 century windows in the a long period. Work during this time will include lifting the nave, it had been installed to give more light at a time when people present floor, installing underfloor heating, and putting alift for were beginning to read. Any stained glass which may have been wheelchairs to enable the disabled to descend easily into the present did not survive and the plain glass which had been inserted Chapter House passage. in 1856 had become in poor condition. The idea of the Angel Window was conceived by Martin Standcliffe, This work is all being done by Heritage Conservation the Minster Architect, and Patrick Reyntiens was asked to develop Restoration Ltd, a specialist company based in Ashton under it. The tracery of this window has a Trinitarian form, with its three Lyne near Manchester. It was they who re-roofed the Quire interweaving arches, and Reyntiens has kept the Trinitarian theme Aisles a few years ago. in his work. At the bottom of the window there are seven Biblical scenes of angels at work on earth, then above those are seven angels each of whom carries a roundel which illustrates one of the Acts of Creation. As one's gaze moves up the window, the colours become more vivid as one approaches the Hand of God reaching down at the top. Isothermic double glazing has also been used for protection here. There is an enormous amount of detail in this window and binoculars are really needed to appreciate the wonder of it all. Incidentally the six panels in the Chapter House Passage show angels of a similar design, but in deeper colours. These also carry roundels, this time showing key episodes from the life of Christ. Note that each panel has Patrick Reyntiens' signature. These and Builders explaining details of the new lead the Great West Window were made in Keith Barley's Studios in roof to a group of Stewards 21 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 Contact Information The Cathedral and Parish Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Southwell www.southwellminster.org

Dean The Very Revd Nicola Sullivan The Minster Centre The Residence, 1 Vicars’ Court, Southwell, NG25 0HP Church Street, Southwell, NG25 OHD Tel: 01636 812593 Email: [email protected] Mrs Adele Poulson (Cathedral Administrator) (day off Friday) Tel: 01636 817285 Email: [email protected] Dean’s PA, Minster Diary Secretary Mrs Rachel Doe Mr Glenn Formoy (Head of Marketing and Events) Tel: 01636 817282 Tel: 01636 817284 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Mrs Andrea Pritchard (Head of Finance, including Gift Aid) Canon Chancellor This post is currently vacant Tel: 01636 819027 Email: [email protected] The Precentor The Revd Richard Frith Mrs Angela Walters (Accounts Officer) 2, Vicars’ Court, Southwell NG25 0HP Tel: 01636 819027 Email: [email protected] Tel: 07516909456 Email: [email protected] The Minster Office (day off Wednesday) Mrs Nikki Smith (Minster Office Assistant / Canon Chancellor’s Canon Theologian The Revd Professor Alison Milbank PA) Tel: 01636 812649 Email: [email protected] Tel: 01636 819224 Email: [email protected] Priest Vicar The Revd Erika Kirk Cathedral Education Department Priest Vicar The Revd David McCoulough The Revd Professor Alison Milbank (Canon Theologian) Email: [email protected] Mrs Diana Ives (Education Officer) The Very Revd Nicola Sullivan (The Dean) Tel: 01636 817993 Email: [email protected] Tel: 01636 817282 Email: [email protected] Mr Matt Hustwayte (Education Assistant) The Revd Richard Frith (The Precentor) Tel: 01636 817993 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Dr Helen Bates (Community Engagement Co-ordinator) Canon Phil Blinston Tel: 01636 817993 Tel: 01636 817305 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Mr Shaun Boney Tel: 01636 830178 Email: [email protected] Minster Libraries Mr Andy Corner (Parish Representative) Ms Victoria Arthurson (Librarian) Tel: 07710869968 Email: [email protected] Mr John Sheppard (Assistant Librarian) Mrs Jan Richardson MBE. DL. JP. (Parish Representative) Tel: 01636 817291 (answerphone) Tel: 01636 812651 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Col Tim Richmond DL OBE Email: [email protected] Vergers Mrs Vicky Thorpe (Safeguarding Officer) Mr Andrew Todd (Head Verger) Tel: 01636 813222 Tel: 01636 817290 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Mr Michael Tawn (Deputy Head Verger) Mr Kenny Nairn, Mr Nick Turner, Mr Andy Gill, Readers and Mr Andy McIntosh Canon Angela Ashwin Tel: 01636 813975 Archbishop’s Palace Email: [email protected] Mr Charles Leggatt (Hon. Curator, Palace & Education Garden) Tel: 01636 817283 Email: [email protected] Music Foundation Welcome Desk Mr Paul (Rector Chori & Organist) Tel: 01636 812649 Tel: 01636 817281 Email: [email protected] Mr Jonathan Allsopp (Assistant Director of Music) Cathedral Shop Tel: 01636 814155 Email: [email protected] Miss Amy Rodgers (Manager) Mr Erik Sharman (Liturgy & Music Administrator) Mrs Nicola Rush (Assistant Manager) Tel: 01636 817280 Email: [email protected] Tel: 01636 812933 Mr James Furniss-Roe (Organ Scholar) Email: [email protected] Tel: 01636 814155 Email:[email protected] Mrs Julie Wright (Chorister Supervisor) Safeguarding Officer Mrs Sarah White (Chorister Supervisor) Mrs Vicky Thorpe Tel: 01636 813222 Email: [email protected]

22 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 Churchwardens and Deputies Flower Guild Mr Andrew Bates Mrs Kathy Hocking Tel: 01636 812059 Email: [email protected] Tel: 01636 812903 Email: [email protected] Mr Graeme Hocking Friends of Southwell Cathedral Tel: 01636 812903 Email: [email protected] Mrs Alison Salter (Secretary) Mrs Jean Jackson Tel: 01636 830373 Email: [email protected] Tel: 01636 813623 Guild of Minster Servers Mr Peter Gibbins (Deputy) Mrs Jill Arrowsmith Tel: 01636 555578 Tel: 01636 812908 Mrs Kathy Hocking Guild of Minster Stewards Tel: 01636 812903 Email: [email protected] Mr Kevin Hender Ms Meg Maunder (Deputy) Tel: 01636 815389 Email: [email protected] Healing Group, Churches Together in Southwell Grounds Mrs Bobby Craik Ms Amanda Rushen (Gardener) Tel: 01636 812649 Email: [email protected] House Groups Mr Miles Prothero (Ground Maintenance) Dr Hugh Middleton and Mrs Vicky Thorpe Tel: 01636 813222 Email: [email protected] Minster Refectory Justice Action Group Tel: 01636 815691 Mr Patrick Sills Tel: 01636 815173 Email: [email protected] Sacrista Prebend Retreat House Minster Social Committee House Warden This post is currently vacant Mr Andy Arrowsmith Mr Andrew Gregory (House Bursar) Tel: 01636 812908 Email: [email protected] Tel: 01636 816833; Mob: 07794 154816 Minster Tours Email: [email protected] Mrs Christine Bowering Website - www.sacristaprebend.wordpress.com Tel: 01636 816995 Email: [email protected] Mission Partnership Group Minster Help Line (Pastoral Committee) Revd Canon Vincent Ashwin Call 01636 812649 Tel: 01636 813975 Email: [email protected] Mothers Union Website Mrs Shelagh Baird-Smith Email: [email protected] Tel: 01636 918341 Email: [email protected] Needlework Guild Southwell Leaves Mrs Liz Turner Dr Hugh Middleton (Editorial Group Convenor) Tel: 01636 812250 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Potwell Dyke Grasslands Action Group Mr Malcolm Rose Southwell Events Tel: 01636 813074 Email: [email protected] Mrs Honor Dunkley (Southwell Events Co-Coordinator) Sacrista Prebend Book Group Tel: 01636 819038 Email: [email protected] Mrs Olga Hudson Website: www.southwellevents.com Tel: 01636 814434 Email: [email protected] Silence & Meditation Group Minster Organisations and Groups Mrs Elizabeth Yule Bell Captain/Bell Ringers Tel: 01636 815311 Mr Trevor Bryan Southwell Churches Together Ladies Choir Email: [email protected] Mrs Gwen Bragg Children’s Church Tel: 01636 812527 Email: [email protected] Mrs Karen Edginton Southwell Churches Together Email: [email protected] Dr Frank McKenzie (Chairman) Christian Aid Email: [email protected] Mrs Helen Sills Website: www.southwellchurchestogether.org.uk Tel: 01636 815173 Southwell Minster Choir Association (SMCA) Faith and Light Mr Michael Davidson Mr Tony Dykes Tel 01636 813840 Email: [email protected] Tel: 01636 918291 Stewardship Officer and Electoral Roll Officer Mrs Lee Harbour Mr Peter Gibbins Tel: 01636 813805 Tel: 01636 555578 Sunday Morning Coffee Mrs Jill Arrowsmith Tel: 01636 812908 Email: [email protected]

23 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020 News and views from Sacrista Prebend A Quiet Space in the Heart of Southwell

estrictions to protect us all from Covid-19 coronavirus include temporary closure of Sacrista Prebend. R In addition to specific scheduled events this means thathe t many who find fellowship and opportunities to serve at the House are, for a while, without them. They are in our prayers and we trust they stay safe. As everywhere else in Southwell, Easter and Spring are very much with us at Sacrista Prebend. Our Sacrista volunteer gardeners’ winter labours are bearing fruit in all sorts of ways and the only word to describe the result is ‘flourishing’. If you don’t know this quiet space in the middle of the town do come and enjoy it Prebend when it is safe to do so. Gardens testify to the vitality of Creation, even as our own lives are caused to close down in so many ways. During the beginning of Lent Sacrista accommodated the first two of a series of fascinating discussions intended to flow on from the Minster Clergy’s series of Lent addresses. These were to be based upon Ruth Valerio’s Say Yes to Life. It really is striking to see how concerns for the environment/creation are prompting folk to think about what is going on around them, and what God may be revealing to us. Sadly, restrictions meant that these discussions could not be continued in a group setting. Usually there are two quiet meetings for silent prayer each week during term-time. At 7.30 pm on Mondays Stephen Ibbotson has headed the team leading Stilling Prayer, that includes half an hour of collective, contemplative and refreshing silence. At 12.30 pm on Thursdays Elizabeth Yule and her colleagues have led a period of Silence and Meditation, beginning with a short introduction, moving into silence at 1.00 pm and concluding with ten minutes of intercessory prayer. Both are sadly suspended but Stilling Prayer continues on line. For information please see https://www.southwellminster.org/?s=stilling+prayer. These are strange times, but one of the possibly more welcome consequences of restricting life’s busy, but often less necessary activities is more time for reflection and attention to a closer, more contemplative perspective on life. Hugh Middleton

Just to be clear

y now most people must be familiar with B public health advice concerning Covid-19 coronavirus infection. If you haven’t done so already and can, visit the NHS 111 website; https://111.nhs.uk/covid-19 There you will be reminded that one of the most important things is to avoid spreading the infection by staying at home and keeping away from people you aren’t living with. You won’t avoid spreading it within the household but if you have to go out, keep your distance from others. A common anxiety is going to be “Have I got it, and if so, when should I seek help?” The serious problem, when it happens, is the development of pneumonia; a chest infection with cough and fever. Hospitals are having to focus upon supporting those in whom this has happened, and who may need breathing support. If you feel unwell look out for a worsening cough, breathlessness and a rising temperature. If those are happening, that is the time to call 111. This will trigger the process of determining whether or not you should be taken to hospital. As we have been told, if you feel at all unwell then you should self-isolate for 7 days, and ensure other members of the household self- isolate for 14 days from the beginning of anyone in the household’s symptoms. This prevents an infectious person going out and about. A lot of people are working very hard to get this under control but it won’t be easy and we need to work together. 24 Southwell Leaves April-May 2020